Still having to make do with Windwalk Totem (if taken), Frost Shock, Earthbind Totem, Ghostwolf, Spirit Walk and Ascendence's ranged aspect. Not much mobility there, nothing new added.
Oh, something new regarding mobility may come with the new Storm Elemental Totem, combined with Primal Elementalist =>Eye of the Storm: Strong air currents whirl around the Primal Storm Elemental, increasing the movement speed of allies within 6 yards by 100%.
So if you take Totemic Projection and have your Storm Elemental with you during it's one minute cd, you'll be hard to kite (the Elemental is a ranged dos though, so it'd probably be hard to manage.

From what I just read on front page, they are removing frostbrand (which saddens me, though I guess its pretty inferior but I'd love some utility options for FB and RB for enhance). I personally feel that the imp GW glyph should be added to GW baseline for all shaman as a standard movement tool.

FB gone was to be expected for quite some time now. It would've needed to be either the go to imbue (which I would've preferredm with FT becoming ele only, both imbues adapted) OR be removed because useless. The new pvp set bonus and all the damage linked to FT made it a no-brainer, and blizz is to lazy to make bad abilities worth it instead of removing. Blizz introduces leveling-learned glyphs, which do not require being bought. LS and HS are among them, though it appears they wont be baseline still, same with GW. Enh will still have hardly customisation options in the glyph department due to mandatory glyphs ;(.

-What is goin on with our AoE?

Same mechanics. CL will deal more damage with the new msw perk (+20% dmg per stack), LL will be rest through FL ticks (15% chance), so more often avaiable spreading. Perks increase the range of the spreading also, and there'l be the new Lava Spew talent.
I guess multi dotting FS via LL and then resetting LL cd via multiple FS ticks will be quite a vicious circle.

-What big changes are there for CDs? Totems?

No mechanic changes. Storm Lash Totem is gone and HTT will be resto only from the looks of it. The other cds are pretty much the same. Totems are still horrible. Hex + CPT still bad, Hex will likely be worse since we can no longer insta cast it via msw, which increases offheal and damage, but no insta hex makes it the worst CC in pretty much any kind of way.

Sup man, long time no talk. So ULE is losing its direct damage, but the buff's damage bonus is getting increased? I don't like that change.... buff the buffs if you want, but the damage should stay, and even be buffed MORE. It's one of Enhances few instant damage abilities, and not op at all on the 15 sec cd..... and if it did good instant damage it would be more attractive to Elem, static or on the move, just for good damage (if it did as much as a LB for example). They might add a mechanic where you can cast while moving for a few sec after using ULE or something to make it useful for ele, but I would like to see the damage component stay.
As for ULE.....

Their point was that enh had to many damage sources, and wanted to cut it down. UE by itself was two damage sources, and low ones at that. I'm not sure how I am supposed to feel about this change. As enh, with the other things they are adding (LL reset, new EotE not incurring next LL/SS/Shock/FN cd, MSW perk) I think we are in nice spot in WoD in damage dealing terms. For ele pvp, it is rubbing salt in wounds, as they will lose LB on the move, which will hurt Fulm/ES as well. No damage on UE either in WoD, so they're down to waiting for Lava Surge procs.
UE turning into a pure buff spell...considering it was its main purpose before, I dont se much of a problem, as enh. It was a ranged spell, and it wouldn't want it to hit for much as enh.

Looks like they are removing alot of totems, not sure how I feel about that. Hopefully they add some new, interesting ones also. I see the talent "Spew Lava" that buffs our ST so it is a dps cd that has an aoe component.... almost like a simplified Fire elemental. Not sure how this will work out, prob good in PVE vs bosses and aoe mob waves, but not great in PVP where targetting, switching, and mobility will make relying on a totem less effective.

The only totem I see removed completely is Storm Lash, with Healing Stream becoming resto only. EET was nerfed in damage, I guess to make it less attractive for enh prio. Spew Lava will work on any fire totem, not just ST. ST will fill the same role for enh as it does for ele => long duration dot, because Searing Flames is gone. So you can supercharge aoe fire totems (FET/MT) as well. I also doubt it will be much effective in pvp, mainly because it is tied to an immobile totem and has rather low range, I believe. Storm Elemental Totem looks just to good in comparison (esp considering it working with Primal Elementalist, adding a movement speed aura).

Originally Posted by Angoth

I'm sorry that Blizzard won't just gift wrap awesome in a cup and let you drink your fill.

....8%? It's still a pitiful amount of damage for 25% uptime. You have to bear in mind currently we pop it as effectively a lowest priority. We pop it before combat so it doesn't waste a *good* cd. It's not bad DPCT but it's absolute shit to be considered a cooldown, to the point people used it more for healing than for damage.

This is bearing in mind your comment that fire elemental would be less - naturally more damage goes to the shaman but this is not the "threatening" wolves we had of wrath, it's just making them not completely laughable.

Last edited by Raiju; 2014-04-24 at 12:41 AM.

Originally Posted by Endus

which is kind of like saying "of COURSE you can't see the unicorns, unicorns are invisible, silly."

....8%? It's still a pitiful amount of damage for 25% uptime. You have to bear in mind currently we pop it as effectively a lowest priority. We pop it before combat so it doesn't waste a *good* cd. It's not bad DPCT but it's absolute shit to be considered a cooldown, to the point people used it more for healing than for damage.

This is bearing in mind your comment that fire elemental would be less - naturally more damage goes to the shaman but this is not the "threatening" wolves we had of wrath, it's just making them not completely laughable.

Never said anything about "threatening wolves we had of wrath", I don't know where you read that. I was just pointing out that Emophia wishes could become true.

Last edited by Xanda; 2014-04-24 at 01:26 AM.

"Man knows - he knows that nothing will begin unless he speaks. And nothing will change, unless he knows."

Still having to make do with Windwalk Totem (if taken), Frost Shock, Earthbind Totem, Ghostwolf, Spirit Walk and Ascendence's ranged aspect. Not much mobility there, nothing new added.

FB gone was to be expected for quite some time now. It would've needed to be either the go to imbue (which I would've preferredm with FT becoming ele only, both imbues adapted) OR be removed because useless. The new pvp set bonus and all the damage linked to FT made it a no-brainer, and blizz is to lazy to make bad abilities worth it instead of removing. Blizz introduces leveling-learned glyphs, which do not require being bought. LS and HS are among them, though it appears they wont be baseline still, same with GW. Enh will still have hardly customisation options in the glyph department due to mandatory glyphs ;(.

That sucks about mobility. I hate having to rely on longer cd's and stuff to close gaps... I just want one reliable ability on a short cd to give us a quick sprint, or something like Imp GW that we can use whenever to quickly close a gap.

Some ideas:
- Bake the Imp GW anti-snare glyph into GW. OR.... make it the PVP Glove bonus, and add the old +5yd bonus directly to shocks/shears so they are 30yds (as they should be honestly).
- Change the 4set PVP bonus to give us a short cd/duration sprint triggered off something like ULE instead of snare effect on FT. Similar to the old ULE FB, have ULE (regardless of imbue) trigger a sprint that lasts 4-5 sec. Having FT slow enemies is kinda pointless since we can use Frost shock on a separate shock cd now, and enemies are usually snared anyways.

@Glyph bloat

It will be a problem. Usually more-so for PVP, which is kinda understandable since you can't have em all, but some "can't live without" options should be reconsidered. Imp GW is just something I personally feel belongs as a class staple, as its unique to our class to fully utilize GW, and GW is already much weaker then druid forms since we are silenced and only get snare reduction to 100%.... totally diff playstyle then druids with their forms but important to win. Another important glyph in PVP for me is something like the Sham Rage dispel, which is very useful for a CC/dot cleanse, esp since we are targeted often for nuking. The imp heals on MW5 is obvious cause of how often you use MW5 to heal you and allies in bg/arenas. The LS dmg red glyph was brought in recently, but just feels too important to pass up as it is almost constant 10% less damage taken. I just don't feel like I have the freedom to explore other glyph build setups cause I am too stuck on these certain glyphs just to be competitive.

The other glyphs seem more balanced.... like I could go Hex CD red for more CC, or purge>MW charges for more MW5 which leads to heals or cc, or Feral Sp heals for some extra bonus heals, or Spirit walk for more mobility. None of these feel required, unlike the glyphs I mentioned above.

Same mechanics. CL will deal more damage with the new msw perk (+20% dmg per stack), LL will be rest through FL ticks (15% chance), so more often avaiable spreading. Perks increase the range of the spreading also, and there'l be the new Lava Spew talent.
I guess multi dotting FS via LL and then resetting LL cd via multiple FS ticks will be quite a vicious circle.

I hate the current FLS>LL>FN mechanic. It just doesn't feel as effective or easy to use as all other melee aoe. Should just make it act like Howling Blast. It surprises me that they haven't figured out a better way to pull this off yet.

Their point was that enh had to many damage sources, and wanted to cut it down. UE by itself was two damage sources, and low ones at that. I'm not sure how I am supposed to feel about this change. As enh, with the other things they are adding (LL reset, new EotE not incurring next LL/SS/Shock/FN cd, MSW perk) I think we are in nice spot in WoD in damage dealing terms. For ele pvp, it is rubbing salt in wounds, as they will lose LB on the move, which will hurt Fulm/ES as well. No damage on UE either in WoD, so they're down to waiting for Lava Surge procs.
UE turning into a pure buff spell...considering it was its main purpose before, I dont se much of a problem, as enh. It was a ranged spell, and it wouldn't want it to hit for much as enh.

ULE may have showed up as 2 diff damage sources on a combat meter but its still just one ability. It does look like they buffed our other instant abilities, even shocks which used to do crap damage, but ULE was one of only a few abilities we had that did damage: SS, LL, Shocks, LB, ULE. With all those, we still had a few gaps in rotations so its not like we were too cramped. And when I think of Unleash Weapon, its me unleashing the power of the elements thru my weapons, which should do BOTH damage AND bonus effects. If anything, keep the damage the same or reduce it but don't remove completely..... if it's a button I will be pressing every 15 sec then it should do SOME damage. I would feel the same as ELE if I'm on the move and its one of the few instants I can use, it should do good damage.... and also as Resto, a buff to my next heal is nice but its much better if that buff ability also heals so that lost gcd doesn't feel like a gap in healing. It just makes more sense to keep it the way it currently is.

@ Totems and T3 talents

We will have to see what they add/remove from totems.... but one thing I feel they should definitely do is to change our T3 talents. They are just very lame talents that aren't very creative and extremely situational uses (I don't think anyone even uses the 2nd talent). This is a great time to revamp this whole talent tier and make it into something useful. Just make Totem Proj a baseline ability (since its like trap launcher and helps us utilize our totems properly).... remove the other talents, and find a good theme for the tier and build talents around it.

Some ideas are:
- To make T3 a mobility tier, and T2 a CC tier. Just move Windwalk totem to T3 and add 2 other mobility related talents, then add a control type talent to T2 to replace WW totem.
-Make it a resource/mechanics related tier. All 3 talents will have some way for Resto to gain extra mana, and also modify some mechanic for ENH and ELE.... like MW5 for ENH and Fulm/LS for Elem. So as ENH each talent would put some twist on MW5.

Hance looks ok for WOD, if people spec into Echo they might be struggling on prio of GCD abilities but other than that it looks decent.

If there was one thing I'd like to see is some kind of Ghost wolf gap close/mobility change, make it a 30 sec, 45 sec CD I don't mind just something fun but rewarding (similar mobility to a Heroic Leap).